Creating a montage image from multiple shots is great fun, from photographing the individual elements needed to executing the techniques involved in Photoshop to blending everything together.

In this fantasy landscape tutorial we’re going to take a look at some basic Photoshop montage skills that will enable you to overlay and blend the supplied photos of rocks, sea and mist into a finished image that’s good enough to hang on your wall. We’ll also look at the advantages of opening images as Smart Objects directly from Bridge.

A key part of any fantasy landscape montage project is the extraction of the individual elements. We’ll reveal how to quickly separate the rocks from their backgrounds using selection tools, the Quick Mask editing mode, and the Refine Edge tool. We’ll finish off by using the Brush tool to create a simple blend at the base of the rocks that will make them subtly fade into the sea.

The techniques are simple, but with the addition of some mist effects created using the Gradient tool and varied layer opacities, the final effect of our fantasy landscape will be both effective and realistic.

We’ll then take a look at clipping adjustments, which can be applied to a selection of layers rather than the entire image. (Note that earlier versions of Photoshop aren’t able to clip adjustments to groups. If you find you’re unable to complete step 14, duplicate the group, then merge it down to a single layer first.)

Finally, to add a little extra atmosphere to our fantasy landscape we’ll tweak the colours using Color Balance and Photo Filter layers. So with the images to hand, it’s time to fire up Photoshop and create this fantasy landscape.

Quick Tip: Clipping adjustments
Adjustment layers give you complete control over the enhancements you make to an image, but there are often situations where the changes you want to make to an image should only affect one layer or group.

If you want to use an adjustment layer to change, say, the colour in a layer without affecting the rest of the layers below, then you’ll need to use a clipping adjustment. To do this simply hold down Alt, hover between the two layers, and when the cursor changes just click to clip.

How to make a fantasy landscape: steps 1-6

01 Open the seascapeClick here to download the start files and follow along! With Photoshop open go to File>Browse in Mini Bridge to open Bridge within the Photoshop interface. Now use the small navigation panel on the left of the screen to navigate to the images for this project. Double click the image Fantasy_Start_01.NEF to open it directly into Adobe Camera Raw.

02 Straighten the horizon
Our seascape has a slightly wonky horizon, which can be fixed with ACR. From the tool bar at the top of the ACR interface select the Straighten tool. Click the image on the line of the horizon, and keeping the mouse button pressed, drag a line across the horizon, then release. Press Enter to confirm the crop.

03 Cool down the colour
To create a more ethereal feeling for our fantasy landscape, we’re first going to need to cool down the colour in our image. On the Basic panel on the right of the interface, reduce the Temperature slider, then drop the Exposure slider a fraction to darken the image. Next we need to add a bit more contrast by increasing the Contrast slider.

04 Add more drama
In the foreground we want to deepen the blacks in the sea. Reduce the Blacks slider, then increase the midtone contrast by increasing the Clarity. This brings more definition to the waves. Select the Graduated Filter tool from the tool bar and draw a line vertically down the sky to darken it.

05 Open as a Smart Object
Below the preview in Adobe Camera Raw click the info text to open up the ACR options. Click the Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects tick box and click OK. Now click Open Object. The image will now open in Photoshop as a Smart Object, which means you’ll be able to readjust the background in ACR later if necessary.

06 Stretch the image
We have a portrait-format image, but for our fantasy landscape we want the orientation to be landscape. Go to Image>Canvas Size, select cm as the unit of measurement, and type 60 in the Width box. Click OK. Now enter Free Transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T) and increase the width of the image by dragging the side anchor points to the edges of the canvas. Press Enter.

]]>http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/11/03/fantasy-landscape-tutorial-how-to-seamlessly-blend-images-into-a-dramatic-montage/feed/0How to make a cool photo collage in Photoshophttp://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2011/03/10/how-to-make-a-cool-photo-collage-in-photoshop/
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2011/03/10/how-to-make-a-cool-photo-collage-in-photoshop/#commentsThu, 10 Mar 2011 15:03:27 +0000Use multiple images to create a collage with a twist in Photoshop CS A creative way to evoke a sense of time passing is to combine several shots together. We can build on this compositing technique in a more creative way by chopping up several shots of a location and sprinkling fragments of each to... Continue reading →

]]>Use multiple images to create a collage with a twist in Photoshop CS

A creative way to evoke a sense of time passing is to combine several shots together. We can build on this compositing technique in a more creative way by chopping up several shots of a location and sprinkling fragments of each to create a photo collage. By using marquee tools and layer masks we can hide parts of each layer to reveal random details (instead of gently blending entire layers together). This creates a stylistic photo collage effect as different times and places are spliced together. To combine the fragments of each layer in a more random and organic way we’ll use the Gradient tool and layer blends. This will make each rectangle of detail look unique and add a more interesting texture to the finished collage.

1. Open images

Choose File>Open and browse to the folder on the CD containing the following images: Collage_Before_01.dng, Collage _Before_02.dng and Collage_Before_03.dng. Select all three images, right-click one and choose Open. The images will open in Adobe Camera Raw.

2. Straighten horizons

Before we start mixing the photographs together, there are a few issues that need to be addressed. The image Collage_Before_01 has a tilted horizon. Select the Straighten tool and drag it along the bottom of the steps. Straighten the other two photos as well.

3. Boost exposure

On Collage_Before_01.dng, drag the Exposure slider up to +0.90. On Collage_Before_03.dng, set Fill Light to 29 to reveal more mid-tone detail and boost the washed-out Blacks to 10. Click Select All, then pop Vibrance up to +45 to enhance the colours in each image.

4. Combine documents

Click Open images. Next, select the image Collage_Before_03. Now choose Select All, then Edit>Copy. Edit>Paste the image onto Collage_Before_02. Now copy the image Collage_Before_01 and paste it into Collage_Before_02.

5. Crop for consistency

You should now have three layers in one document. Each straightened layer features an image of a slightly different size to the others, so select the Crop tool and crop the document to fit the smallest image on Layer 2. Press Enter to remove the edges of the larger background layers.

6. Customise the grid

Go to Edit>Preferences>Guides, Grids & Slices. Set Guidline to Every 0.75cm. Set Subdivisions to 1. Select View>Show and choose Grid. Go to View and make sure Snap is ticked. Snap to should have Grid ticked as well. This will enable you to draw consistently shaped rectangles on your collage.

7. Make a selection

Click Layer 2. Click the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Select the Rectangular Marquee tool. Draw a horizontal rectangle on the white mask. When you’re filling this selection with a greyscale gradient you’ll make part of layer 2 disappear, revealing details on the layers below.

8. Draw a horizontal gradient

Now select the Gradient tool. Click the Gradient Editor icon and choose Foreground to Background. Click OK and then click the Reflected Gradient icon. Set Mode to Multiply. Click the white mask. Draw a horizontal gradient in the marquee selection to make that section of the layer translucent.

9. Draw a vertical gradient

Draw a vertical rectangle that overlaps the horizontal one. With the mask still targeted, draw a vertical gradient inside this marquee. As we’re using the Multiply blending mode you’ll get a random amount of transparency where any marquee selections overlap, producing a more random opacity.

10. Invert the mask

Draw more horizontal and vertical marquees over random parts of the mask and fill them with gradients. When you’ve finished, press Ctrl D to deselect the last marquee. Click the mask and press Ctrl to invert it. Most of Layer 2 will vanish, but random slices will remain.

11. Mask Layer 1

Click Layer 1 and add a mask. Repeat the techniques described in the previous steps to fill horizontal and vertical marquees with gradients. This will reveal details in the background layer. You should now have a collage featuring fragments of features from three seperate layers.

12. Tweak the tones

We can now see fragments of detail from three seperate photos. To make sure the composite collage has a healthy contrast, add a Levels Adjustment layer. Drag the white highlight input level slider left to 235. This brightens up the collage’s under-exposed highlights.